As men and women experience different illness and wellness patterns, sex and gender(*) factor significantly into medicine. While some of the differences surrounding men’s and women’s health issues are purely physiological, others are behavioral, which indicates biological as well as cultural and socio-economical factors at work. Comprehending how typical behavioral differences between men and women can affect prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease can facilitate our understanding of illness and wellness, generally as well as gender-specifically. 

Dr. Sinatra first addressed gender-specific medicine in 2000 when he wrote Heart Sense for Women, a book dedicated to women’s cardiovascular health issues. Over the years, Dr. Sinatra has witnessed differences in cardiac symptoms between his male and female patients and has learned that men and women often require different diagnoses and treatments. As traditional medicine reflected, at the time, a primarily male-based model of health care, Dr. Sinatra wanted to get the message across that “you just can’t treat women like men” with regard to medicine. 

Over the past decade, various organizations have echoed Dr. Sinatra’s concerns about gender-specific medicine. The Office of Research on Women’s Health, a division of the National Institute of Health, delineated research priorities for women’s health, recognizing that gender differences in medicine extend beyond obstetrics and gynecology. In addition to the abovementioned considerations, the NIH reports site the physician-patient relationship as a behavioral component to contemplate when revising the approach to women’s health care.

In this section, we will explore men’s and women’s health issues through both biological and behavioral contexts. While many health concerns we will explore, such as prostate or ovarian cancer, are predominantly associated with one gender, some of the issues detailed under either the men's or women's section apply to both genders. For example, according to the CDC in 2005, 1764 men were diagnosed with breast cancer. 

As men and women encompass both “masculine” and “feminine” qualities, human health care can benefit from a better understanding of women’s health care needs. By utilizing gender as a platform to elucidate various health interests, we hope to fuel the progressive movement where holism and conventional care merge.

(*)Note: while sex denotes biological classification as either a man or woman based on reproductive anatomy and chromosomes, gender indicates a person’s self-representation as either sex, and is more closely linked to social or environmental experience. For the purpose of this section, though, we apply the term, “gender,” when discussing differences between men and women in medicine.

© 2009 Heart MD Institute, PA